Rilya Case Informant Sentenced

Jailhouse Snitch Gets Life Term In Armed Robbery

A Miami-Dade County judge on Monday sentenced Robin Lunceford, a jailhouse informant and a key witness in the case of missing child Rilya Wilson, to life in prison for an unrelated robbery.

Before she learned her fate, Lunceford tried to snitch one more time.

During an impromptu statement, Lunceford, 42, asked Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Israel Reyes to investigate allegations of prosecutorial and sexual misconduct within the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Lunceford named a prosecutor but did not go into details of the allegations. She also suggested that prosecutors tried to coax her into lying in other high-profile cases in return for a recommendation of a light sentence.

"There are a lot of things going on during my trial that were not brought to your attention," Lunceford told Reyes. "My attorney [Ellis Rubin] did not want to bring them up because he was trying to save the state attorney from an embarrassing scandal."

Rubin declined to elaborate on his client's allegations. Prosecutors in the courtroom rolled their eyes and shook their heads as Lunceford made her allegations. They declined to comment.

Reyes refused to listen and sentenced Lunceford to life in prison for the robbery. A jury convicted Lunceford last month of the armed robbery of a Miami Beach therapist in 2004. She was sentenced under Florida's habitual offender laws.

Lunceford emerged as the prosecution's star witness against former Rilya Wilson caregiver Geralyn Graham when Lunceford claimed that Graham confessed to killing and burying the child. The two women were sharing a courthouse holding cell at the time.

A Miami-Dade grand jury used Lunceford's statement to indict Graham for first-degree murder. Prosecutors offered Lunceford a 20-year plea deal for her cooperation, but Lunceford demanded a three-year sentence.

Since then, Lunceford and her attorney have hinted publicly that she would not testify in the Rilya Wilson case. Rubin said on Monday that Lunceford is scheduled for a deposition in the case soon, but he now thinks that might not happen.

Rubin said he plans to appeal Lunceford's robbery conviction and fears her testimony at the deposition would put her case in jeopardy.

Ihosvani Rodriguez can be reached at ijrodriguez@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5005.